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3 Top Stocks at Half-Price

Investors still think highly of these companies, despite their fire-sale prices.

You love buying your shirts when they go on sale. And who can resist a buy-one-get-one-free offer? So when our stocks go on sale, why do we bemoan their low prices?

Smart investors like Warren Buffett or Marty Whitman love it when their stocks are suddenly selling at bargain-basement prices. For them, these companies become no-brainer buys.

The investors in the Motley Fool CAPS community also like a bargain, apparently. Below, you'll find three companies whose shares are selling at least 50% below their 52-week highs, but which still earn high honors from our investor-intelligence database. Consider it a BOGO sale on stocks.

Naturally, we want you to look a bit closer at these stocks before buying. You can get low-priced appliances in the dent-and-ding section of your home-remodeling superstore, but their quality might not be so good. Same thing here: Make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with the company before you plug it into your portfolio.

Take two, they're smallThere's been nothing to indicate the shipping market will be improving anytime soon as dayrates keep dropping and a perpetually depressed Baltic Dry Index. As a result, the stock of fuel-products distributor Aegean Marine Petroleum has been swimming with the fishes.

Catering to shippers, dry-bulk carriers, and tankers all over the world, Aegean's been swamped by the generally poor outlook in the shipping industry. Genco Shipping & Trading(NYSE: GNK) reported lower revenues, lower profits, and rates that were almost half of what they were a year ago. Excel Maritime(NYSE: EXM) was also caught in the undertow with rates 20% below last year. It's not surprising we find Aegean's shares sent to Davey Jones's locker.

CAPS member LSmolinski says that with Aegean having physical supply operations at the Panama Canal it will continue its expansion globally:

ANW-is adding terminals at both ends of the Panama Canal exposing them to new business fueling the marine industry.

Add Aegean to the Fool's free portfolio tracker and see whether it can sail off into the sunset.

No longer melting downUranium stocks seems to have stopped digging a hole to China, a condition exacerbated by the nuclear crisis in, well, Japan. Shares of Cameco(NYSE: CCJ) are up 7% over the past month, Uranium Energy is 15% higher, and Denison Mines trades almost 20% above where it was 30 days ago.

While the Fukushima meltdown made countries around the world reexamine their reliance upon nuclear energy, China in particular shrugged off the danger and continues to pursue a course of greater industry growth. Nuclear energy production in China is expected to grow to 90 gigawatts by 2020, with its share of uranium demand jumping from 5% of global demand last year to 20% of global demand by 2020.

Risks, of course, remain in the industry. Another disaster would likely have a ripple effect greater than Fukushima. When wild fires raged out west, the nuclear lab at Los Alamos was brought dangerously within reach. Flooding in Nebraska last month breached the protective berms surrounding the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, which fortunately was shutdown since April.

But it's tough to swear off the cheap fuel nuclear power represents, so investors might want to think about the depressed prices of Denison and its peers, even after the bump higher they've enjoyed. CAPS member TravisRcroteau sees Denison in particular rising higher still:

With the recent tsunamis and fear about nuclear technologies this stock has seen a fearful and unjustified devaluation. I expect this stock to move higher in the next year or two as the world continues to grow and power demands rise.

A smaller form factorI bought one of my first computers from Gateway and remember when it was going to transform the living room. You'd be able to surf the web on your TV from the comfort of your couch. Today, people don't even know Gateway still exists (as a subsidiary of Acer) let alone that it was once a leading technological innovator.

Google(Nasdaq: GOOG) is often though of as an innovator too, and while it's not in danger of being subsumed like Gateway was, it technological advances are often hit or miss. Search, Chrome, and Android are all big hits; everything else borders on miss.

Computer peripheral maker Logitech would put Google's attempt to transform the living room in the miss column, more in line with Gateway's forgotten efforts. Logitech's Revue was supposed to worth with Google TV, a mashup of TV programming and Internet media but it's resorting to slashing prices to spur adoption since returns outpace sales. Ouch.

CAPS member pilavdzic believes Logitech will overcome this debacle, particularly because it has brought back the management team that made Logitech a household name, at least temporarily:

Google TV was beta product released too early but once it is fixed has potential. CEO who reigned during the disaster is out, CEO with proven track record of running the company successfully before is now running the company temporarily until a replacement is found...

Monitor how well Logitech fares down the road by adding the stock to the Fool's free portfolio tracker.

Have half a mindSign up today for the completely free CAPS service, and tell us whether these stocks are twice as good at half the price.

Author

Rich has been a Fool since 1998 and writing for the site since 2004. After 20 years of patrolling the mean streets of suburbia, he hung up his badge and gun to take up a pen full time.

Having made the streets safe for Truth, Justice and Krispy Kreme donuts, he now patrols the markets looking for companies he can lock up as long-term holdings in a portfolio. So follow me on Facebook and Twitter for the most important industry news in retail and consumer products and other great stories.